Mid Day International News |
- Facebook founder obtains restraining order against Indian-origin 'stalker'
- 21-year-old woman caught with 50 condoms of cocaine in stomach
- Pregnant Victoria to bare all for Vogue cover?
- Eighth wonder of the world 'rediscovered'
- Musharraf named as accused in Bhutto murder
- Egypt approves 15% raise for govt employees
- Super Bowl ad featuring Tibet fish curry upsets Chinese
- Venice 'loses' Grand Canal
| Facebook founder obtains restraining order against Indian-origin 'stalker' Posted: Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the social networking site Facebook, has obtained a restraining order against a man who he says has been stalking him. The 26-year-old filed legal papers claiming Californian Pradeep Manukonda, 31, tried to 'follow, surveil and contact Mr Zuckerberg using language threatening his personal safety.' According to the papers, Zuckerberg fears for his safety and that of his girlfriend Priscilla along with his sister, reports Radaronline.com. Facebook security also 'intercepted' Manukonda at Zuckerberg's Palo Alto, California, home on January 24. "Just as he (Mark) was about to walk up the front steps," the court papers state. While the billionaire is not listed as a friend of Manukonda on the social networking site he created, the former Harvard student's sister Randi still is. Randi works on marketing, politics, current events and non-profits for Facebook.
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| 21-year-old woman caught with 50 condoms of cocaine in stomach Posted: A young woman was caught with 50 latex condoms of cocaine stored in her stomach at Boston's Logan Airport. Cops said the 21-year-old swallowed nearly a pound of cocaine before boarding a flight from the Dominican Republic and landing in Boston. They said that New Jersey resident Luisa Gill swallowed 50 condoms packed full of cocaine carrying a street value of approximately 50,000 dollars, then hopped on the JetBlue flight on Saturday. Customs agents at Boston's Logan Airport questioned Gill after noticing she seemed jittery. Gill eventually admitted she had ingested the drugs and was taken to a local hospital where doctors retrieved the stash. Authorities said the situation wasn't uncommon but the size of the load was shocking. "That's a lot of dope," the New York Daily News quoted former DEA agent Chris Egan as telling Boston's Fox 25.
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| Pregnant Victoria to bare all for Vogue cover? Posted: Singer-turned-fashion designer Victoria Beckham, who is pregnant with her fourth child, may bare all for a photoshoot for Vogue. According to the reports, the 36-year-old is walking in actress Demi Moore's footsteps by getting clicked during her pregnancy. "Knowing Victoria, she'll do something completely unique. There's a real buzz going around about it," dailystar.co.uk quoted a source as saying. Moore, 48, famously posed nude for Vanity Fair while she was seven months pregnant.
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| Eighth wonder of the world 'rediscovered' Posted: Scientists have rediscovered what they claim is the eighth wonder of the world -- Pink and White Terraces in New Zealand, which were buried in mud for 100 years, losing some charm. Until the late 19th century, the Pink and White Terraces along Lake Rotomahana on the North Island, attracted tourists from around the world, interested in seeing beautiful natural formations created by a large geothermal system. But the eruption of Mt Tarawera on June 10, 1886, buried the terraces in sediment and caused the lake basin to enlarge, engulfing the land where the terraces stood. For more than a century, people have speculated whether any part of the Pink and White Terraces survived the eruption. Now, an international team has located portions of the long-lost Pink and White Terraces, using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to map the bottom of Lake Rotomahana. Team leader Cornel de Ronde of GNS Science in New Zealand said the scientists were elated by the rediscovery. "The first side-scan sonar image gave a hint of a terraced structure so we scanned the area twice more and we are now 95 per cent certain we are seeing the bottom two tiers of the Pink Terraces," de Ronde said. Side-scan sonar and bathymetric data collected by two REMUS 100 AUVs clearly show crescent-shaped terraced structures in about 60 meters of water where the Pink Terraces were located prior to 1886; they are covered by brownish lake sediment, say the scientists. After detecting areas of interest with the AUV's sonar systems, the team used the underwater camera system to capture images of the lake floor where they were able to photograph some of the stepped terrace edges. Dr de Ronde said the rest of the Pink Terraces were either destroyed during the eruption, or are still concealed under thick sediment not able to be penetrated by high- frequency AUV sonars. The scientists found no sign of the larger White Terraces in the part of the lake that matched their location prior to 1886. The two terraces, part of a very large on-land geothermal system, were separated by several hundred meters prior to the eruption. Scientists hope the data collected during this expedition will help them better understand how geothermal systems respond to disruptions of this kind. "It was very gratifying to take the tools and knowledge we've developed for ocean research and apply them to work in the lake, especially for a scientific project with so much Maori cultural significance. "We hope the success in Lake Rotomahana is the first of many scientific collaborations in this part of the world where there are many interesting research problems to investigate," Dr de Ronde said. The project was a collaboration involving GNS Science, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, Lamont -Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle and the University of Waikato.
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| Musharraf named as accused in Bhutto murder Posted: Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf was yesterday named as an accused in the assassination of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto by investigators which also asked a trial court to declare him as an "absconder".
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| Egypt approves 15% raise for govt employees Posted: Egypt's embattled regime yesterday announced a 15 per cent raise for government employees in an attempt to shore up its base and defuse popular anger amid protests demanding President Hosni Mubarak's ouster.
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| Super Bowl ad featuring Tibet fish curry upsets Chinese Posted: The Super Bowl usually comes and goes without much notice in China. However, this year, America's famous sporting event took a different turn when a television advertisement featuring Tibetans and a Chicago-area Himalayan restaurant triggered angry comments from Internet users in China. The ad by Groupon a US-based company that helps online group-buyers get discounts was to generate support for The Tibet Fund, an organisation that aims to preserve Tibetan culture.  During the ad, actor Timothy Hutton appears to be served a meal at Himalayan Restaurant in Chicago. He delivers the line "The Tibetan people are in trouble. Their culture is in jeopardy." Then in a seemingly sarcastic tone, Hutton adds, "But they still whip up an amazing fish curry!" Hutton then talks about a 50 per cent discount he and other Groupon users got at a Himalayan restaurant in Chicago. The joke fell flat with Chinese Internet users, at a time when the venture capital-backed Groupon is aggressively expanding its services and staffing in mainland China. Tibet has long been a source of consistent domestic and international tension for China, which established control over the region in 1951.
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| Posted: New law transfers canal ownership to national government Venetians woke up yesterday to find that one of the symbols of their world famous lagoon city the Grand Canal had been stolen. "The Grand Canal has been snatched," was the way several newspaper headlines put it.  Nearly 107 years ago, King Victor Emmanuel III had transferred ownership of the 4,000-metre long canal to Venice It seems that a new national law intended to get rid of old, out-of-date provisions that have been on the books since Italy was a monarchy also transferred ownership of the canal from the city to the national government. Worse still, it was part of a package promoted by Roberto Calderoli whose title is Simplification Minister even though the provision left many Venetians scratching their heads. Calderoli is a key member of the Northern League party, whose federalist battle cry is that the central government in Rome must give power back to regions. In fact, the League's mantra is 'Roma Ladrona', (Rome the big thief). The new provision abolished, among other old laws, a decree by King Victor Emmanuel III nearly 107 years ago transferring ownership of the 4,000-metre long canal to Venice. Venetians were irate enough that the local governor, Giancarlo Galan, said he would be the first one to fight for the measure to be changed so that the city of Venice remains the official owner of the canal. But Calderoli assured Venetians that it would all be worked out and that ownership of the canal, which is flanked by some of the world's greatest architecture and plied by the famed black gondolas, would be returned. Johnny Depp's Palace on the Canal Johnny Depp has shelled out 10 million euros (over R60 crore) to buy a palace on Venice's Grand Canal. The Hollywood heartthrob apparently fell in love with the Palazzo Dona Sangiantoffetti when he spent time in the lagoon city last year during filming for the comedy-thriller, The Tourist. Depp outbid an 'Arab prince' for the 17th century palace.
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